


What I Did For Love

by HistoricalTears



Series: The Akeshu Musical Songfic [4]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Haru's father owns said aquarium, M/M, Makoto and Sae work at an aquarium, Mermaid!Akira, Mermaid!Ann, Mermaid!Ryuji, Scientist!Goro, Selectively Mute!Akira, Title from A Chorus Line, Yusuke is just a struggling artist no change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-10-28 19:43:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20784086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HistoricalTears/pseuds/HistoricalTears
Summary: The Tokyo Aquarium, owned by Kunikazu Okumura, was one of the most visited aquarium and research centers in the country, specializing in exotic creatures with fascinating information. However, when the research team consisting of Makoto Niijima, her sister Sae Niijima, and a close friend Goro Akechi, along with some expert Okumura divers, stumbled upon a creature they all thought was only mythical, the aquarium's fame was about to get a lot more famous.Akira Kurusu was a young mermaid, not even a grown adult. He lived in a pod that consisted of his friends Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Shiho Suzui, and Yuuki Mishima, a pretty reckless pod of young mermaids if anyone asked around. Most merpeople would actually tend to stay away from humans, finding them a threat to their kind. But Akira was a very curious merman, and that curiosity became his downfall.





	1. Kiss Today Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Shit, I think I straight up started a series of musical titles and lead to this. I'm sorry. This is actually the most I've ever uploaded. Also the chapter titles are more or less the lyrics to 'What I Did For Love.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyaIYWpS3g

The waves of the ocean smacked against the Okumura research boat, rocking it to and fro. The motion gave Haru Okumura a feeling of nausea as she steadied herself and walked towards Makoto, Sae, and Goro. She grasped onto the railing of the boat, squeezing her eyes shut, but this only heightened the movement of rocking waves. Makoto went over to the heiress and placed a hand on her elbow. "I told you that you didn't have to come with us. We were perfectly fine like this." Makoto infromed her.

Haru just shook her head with a huff and winced. "No, I wanted to go. I wanted to see how humane these captures are," she said. Makoto looked at her older sister who just shrugged her shoulders in a silent response. "It seems lately, all the research team brings back are sick fish and injured dolphins. I want to see for myself that these animals aren't hurt."

Goro approached Haru with a polite smile. "I assure you that the only reason these fish come back to the aquarium sick is because of their sudden removal from their natural habitat." He explained to the girl. Goro was one of the younger, yet brightest of the scientists on deck. His father's connection with the Tokyo Aquarium brought him up close and personal with the research team he so desired to be in. He wanted to impress his father with his skill on quick studies, but Masayoshi Shido seemed to be busy with other plans, like running for office. "Besides, the only method of catch we use is fishing nets, which yes it causes stress to the animals, but it's less harmful then, say a crab trap. Besides, now that we have a lot of the local sea life at the aquarium, we're mostly just catching other animals, marking them, and releasing them for future studies. Completely harmless."

The heiress's concern was brought down a little by Goro's explanation, but she still did not trust the teams' methods. Especially the men who always where the lab coats on the boat. Who needs a lab coat if you're near the water anyways?

"Goro is right, Haru. Now a days it's just a simple catch and release. We're trying to at least mark the pods of dolphins in this area" Sae said, putting a hand on Haru's shoulder and squeezing it lightly in a reassuring manner.

Haru sighed softly and nodded. Makoto smiled at her, taking one of her hands. "Come on, let's bring you back inside." She started and the two turned towards the shelter when suddenly the scientists and divers made a commotion that peaked all of their attention. "What's going on?" Makoto asked as she ran to the stern of the boat.

"One of the divers believed they picked up something incredible, something we don't have in our database and in the aquarium." One of the leading scientists explained. 

"What? A new creature perhaps?" Goro asked, walking with Makoto to the stern and looking over at the water. "Or maybe a sea turtle you forgot to tag?"

"No no! It really is something different! Release the nets, we need to bring this back!" another researcher said. Everyone scrambled to get the net underwater, and Haru watched in anticipation. Were they going to just capture this creature without knowing what it is? _I guess that's the whole point of a catch and release. But then again, they did say that it's something the aquarium doesn't have. _Haru began to worry her bottom lip between her teeth as she just watched everyone on deck prepare to capture another helpless creature. Over on the intercom, she heard one of the divers utter the words "You're not going to believe what we just caught in this net."

The pod of 5 young merpeople swam near the shoreline of the beach in this small Japanese fishing town. The two blonds were fooling around, shoving each other dangerously close to the edge, causing one of the other timid ones to worry and stop them. "C'mon Yuuki, we're just messing around," the loud male, Ryuji, said to the timid dark haired merman. "It's not like we're gonna get caught."

"If you keep doing that, it might happened!" Yuuki, the timid merman in question, told the louder.

"You need to stop worrying, Yuuki!" Ann, the other blond mermaid that fooled around with Ryuji, said while swimming over. "You gotta remember that we do this all the time and not a single one of us got caught by humans. Even Akira over there who's just fascinated by humans for some odd reason."

Akira glanced at Ann and gave her glare before it quickly disappear. He was keeping his eyes on a boat that was anchored dangerously close to them. He squinted when he saw a number of humans dive into the water with strange contraptions, Akira assumed it was to help them breathe. "Guys... get to the cave." he told his friends in a quiet voice. The other four pod members turned their heads towards the noirette as he focused on the diving humans. 

Once they realized what was happening, each one of them slowly swam down towards their cave, which was brilliantly hidden. Ryuji was the last to start swimming down, looking at the raven haired male. "Akira, let's go." Ryuji said but received only silence. "Akira, don't you dare do what I think you're going to do." More silence. The merman was watching the divers with golden eyes, making sure they weren't going anywhere near the pod. "Dammit, you son of a bitch." Ryuji growled. "Get back inside!" The blonde male tried moving towards Akira but the other looked at him and gestured towards the cave. "I'm not going without you."

"Ryuji... go now." Akira said quietly. "Don't make any quick movements." 

Ryuji looked at Akira in disbelief before he huffed. "Fine. But if you get caught, don't say I didn't warn you." he said and slowly started swimming down to the cave. "Hey man, you better be at the cave after I leave." Receiving nothing, Ryuji sighed nervously before continuing to swim down. Akira was trying to be a martyr again, oh how he hated that reckless merman. 

Once he was sure his pod was safe in the cave, Akira swam a little deeper to be masked by the seaweed and kelp, swimming towards the boat at divers. He paused when the divers had also gone deeper, strange objects in their hands that flashed a blinding light and stunned the fish temporarily before they darted off. Akira was frozen to his spot, intently watching that he didn't notice the diver human approach him with the same object, until he turned around and saw the blinding white flash that caused his pupils to dilate. He made a clicking noise and rubbed his eyes furious, blinking and seeing black spots invade his vision. Panicked, Akira slapped the diver with his tail in an effort to drive them away, but it only peaked their interest, and soon they were calling the others. Akira was in real danger now.

When his vision had cleared up, Akira shook his head and started to swim, but his sense of direction failed him as he swam opposite from the cave, and towards the shoreline. If he was going to face these humans, it would at least be useful to lead them away from his pod. He had about a few more seconds on him when suddenly he was entrapped in a net. The very same net that he heard other merpeople talked about when dolphins, fish, and belugas got captured. His panic turned to pure anxiety when he had no control of swimming. He was being dragged up to the surface of the water, that much he realized, when he got the idea to start swimming down. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't one human hauling him up to the boat. It was multiple, and he was a relatively small merperson. He was still young, not fully grown, so of course there wasn't any way for him to beat the strength of a dozen humans.

Haru watched as the researchers all pulled on the rope that contained the net encasing the creature they caught. She held her breath when she heard Sae that they were close to bringing the net out, and she kept watching as they finally, with one last heave together, dragged the net with the helpless creature. Most of them couldn't believe their eyes, and they started wondering if they were imagining things, for on their deck, curling and clicking in fear was a creature thought to be nothing more than a myth. _It can't be... but it's laying right there. _Haru thought as she watched with wide eyes at the shaking creature.

It was indeed what everyone thought. A mermaid, young so it seems by it's soft features. It- or rather he- had a red and black iridescent coloring to him, light dorsal fins on his arms that also contained some of the red and black scales. The areas that weren't covered by his iridescent scales were just pale, smooth skin. His nails were more like claws, sharp and dangerous, able to possibly cut through skin and muscle. His neck had three slits on either side; gills. The areas where normal human ears would be were actually soft red dorsal fins like the ones on his arms. When his eyes flew open in panic, everyone was able to note the gold coloring of his eyes, more specifically the irises and pupils, while the sclera of the eyes were black, instead of white like humans. When he started clicking and thrashing about in panic, Goro Akechi was the only one able to note the sharp teeth underneath those pale lips. He was not the only one, however, that thought the creature was beautiful. 

Unfortunately, the beauty had to be silence, sedated, as he was becoming too distress in the current environment. "Someone make sure to sedate him to calm him down and keep water on him. We don't want him to dry up." Goro ordered the team who immediately started getting to work. The creature - mermaid, Goro reminded himself - panicked and shook more when one of the researchers approached him with a syringe. "Don't worry, little one, this will not hurt you. It's only going to calm you down." he tried to reassure the panicking young mermaid - merman? - as the research held him down and stuck the syringe into his arm. In a matter of 40 seconds, the merman started to get drowsy, his fight leaving him. "We shoulder head back to the aquarium now."

"Okumura-san will be thrilled when he discovers that we brought back something that'll boost up popularity to the aquarium." A researcher said in a voice that left Haru uneasy. 

Makoto laid a hand on Haru's shoulder. "Don't worry about the creature. It'll be fine." she tried to reassure.

"But what if it gets sick like all the other animals? What if it gets stressed when it finds out it'll be on display for thousands of eyes to see?" Haru asked, unable to take her eyes off of the unconscious merman. 

"Ah, I understand your worry, Okumura-chan," Goro said. "And to be frank, I quite worry for the creature's safety as well. It's quite a remarkable discovery, and to have it be exploited so soon after its capture does seem a little inhumane. I'll be sure to talk to the other scientists on keeping the creature at the research bay and only have higher paying guests actually see it." Goro looked down at the drugged up merman in pity. So many personal space invading research is going to be brought upon him, Goro was almost tempted to throw him back into the water. "But, I must say, a find like this is definitely going to make your father happier now that the aquarium will become more and more popular when news goes around."

Haru still wasn't satisfied with the answer she got, but it was better than false words that the creature was going to be safe and happy. She turned to Goro and gave him a weary smile. "Thank you, Akechi-kun."

"It's my pleasure. As one of the leading scientists on this research, I'll be sure to keep this creature safe." Goro promised, and it was a promise, not a false word that Haru dreaded. She could always trust in Goro Akechi to make the right calls.

The boat began to make its way to the dock, where they transported the merman into a tank in a truck going to the Tokyo Aquarium. Sae made sure to contact Kunikazu Okumura himself to inform him of the findings they found. Unbeknownst to the group, Okumura had immediately called the presses to inform them that something new was coming to the Tokyo Aquarium.


	2. The Sweetness and the Sorro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira is transported back to the aquarium where he undergoes multiple tests. Goro is there to make sure he is thoroughly calm.

Akira had woken up to blinding lights and multiple eyes staring at him and speaking to one another. It took him a couple of minutes to register what happened before he remembered; ordering his pod back into the crevice of the deep ocean, a flashing light and then getting caught in a net only to be taken out of the water and suddenly losing consciousness. He did remember a face, a human who had spoke to him in a calming voice before he succumbed to whatever he was injected with. All of it happened so quickly that Akira became panicked when he awoke, and he started to thrash about. The talking had stopped and the humans above him tried to restrain him.

"Stop it, you're only making it worse," said a voice - no, _the _voice. It was the very same voice he heard when he was trying to get out of the net on the boat. The calming and polite voice peaked Akira's curiosity and he had stopped thrashing, thinking the command was for him, but then the various hands upon him released the merman. "Oh, it wasn't for you. It was for the scientists; my apologies, I saw you panicking and I didn't want to make the situation work."

Akira turned his head to the voice in question, seeing a human with pretty maroon eyes and chin length brown hair, a kind smile on his face that brought a wave of comfort to the merman. "I guess these tests are done for today now that you're awake. We don't want to keep you out of water for too long that you dry up." He didn't even realize he was out of water until the male mentioned it. It was then that he started noticing his damp skin was becoming dry, and he was very much in need to be back in the water completely. "I'm going to need you to stay still and try not to panic while we move you to the pool." Akira blinked his gold eyes before he nodded, surprising the pretty human. "Ah, I didn't know that you could understand me completely. Frankly, I was just talking how I normally would to the other animals in here." _Other animals? _Akira thought to himself and shifted awkwardly as he was transported to the pool. 

It wasn't a really deep pool. It had a good six feet but that was pretty much it; to him it was shallow and there wasn't enough room for him to swim around. The pool was nothing more than a wide circle six feet deep with water. It was a pathetic if you asked him. Akira took a few seconds to do a perimeter of this habitat as he normally would with different places before he resurfaced and came face to face with the pretty human.

"I want to know truly if you can understand me, that way I could tell the biologists to plan out their tests." Akira took in the words and processed it. He didn't know what a biologist was but he assumed it was those humans from before. He nodded once and the human smiled. "Perfect. Now, they did tell us that you have vocal chords that function very similarly to our own. If that's the case, I would like for you to repeat my name if you could. My name is Goro Akechi."

Akira blinked in surprise at the sudden name drop. Normally, it takes Akira an insane amount of trust to just drop his name out in the open like that. He opened his mouth, hesitating a bit before speaking in his normal quiet voice, "Go-ro?" 

The human - Goro, Akira reminded himself - beamed at the response. "Ah! So you can speak. This is just one breakthrough after another." Goro said, before meeting with Akira's eye level. "This may be too much to ask, but do you have a name? Normally we would give the current animals we have here names but since you have proved to speak human languages, I wouldn't want to be disrespectful and change your name if you have one already. So do you?" Akira hesitated to reply but he nodded his head just once, which caused Goro's smile to widened. "And would you be willing to give me your name?" That question was where Akira drew then line. He gently worried his bottom lip between his sharp teeth and shook his head, watching as Goro's smile faltered a bit. "That's alright. I understand your hesitance, seeing as we removed you from your home. You don't need to tell me if you aren't ready."

Akira was surprised that Goro didn't pressure him to say his name, seeing Goro getting up. "I'm going to be leaving to get you some food. I don't want you to starve while in our care." With that said, Goro turned to leave, what was now apparent to him, a nursery for either sick or injured animals.

As Goro left the nursery, he returned to research center of the aquarium with some information to Sae. "I took a few minutes with the merman after the tests and found some rather interesting details. As we know, all the animals do listen to us, but this merman is the only that's actually responsive to everything said without being 'trained.'" Goro explained to Sae who had stopped typing away into the computer. "Furthermore, he does have functioning human-like vocal chords, seeing as how he responded to me by repeating my name. However, I cannot get a name out of him, which seems to be a sort of trust issue."

Sae nodded, turning back to the computer and typing everything Goro told her down into the merman's file. "This is good. It means he's not fully a hostile, at least not now." she said. "We still can't relax just because he is calm around just you. When he's around other humans, he panics and thrashes around, making it almost impossible to get him to cooperate."

Now that Sae mentioned it, the young scientist did note that the merman had calmed down upon hearing his voice. "Maybe the next test we do should be centered on the human-merman contact; the different reactions he gives us to different humans. As per usual, I can oversee the experiment." Goro said and was then standing in silence as Sae took a moment to think. 

"Make sure to bring Doctor Takemi just in case. I know you saw those claws on the merman and I don't need anyone getting hurt by them." She instructed and Goro smiled, bowing before the older.

"Of course. I'll be sure to inform Takemi-san this test." Goro said.

"Alright. I'll make a schedule and choose the people going in. Thank you, Akechi-kun."

The younger nodded and he left the center. The next day should prove to be interesting, but he probably should take the younger Niijima with him, seeing as she is also very intellectual and was worried for the merman's safety once he was removed from the water. He made sure to put a note into his phone about needing to call Makoto in the morning about the test. Goro left the aquarium to make his commute home to his apartment, thinking about the piercing gold eyes that belonged to the merman, beautiful and innocent, also very scared. But when he was around the merman, he noticed that the creature always seemed to calm down and soften in his presence. The test tomorrow should prove his theory; there might be some sort of connection between him and the merman.

The next morning proved to be promising, as Goro had called Makoto the moment he stepped off his train for the aquarium. "Your sister and I had an idea after the previous test on the merman yesterday," he explained to Makoto through the phone. "He seems to have a different reaction to the other biologists, but when it comes to me, he's rather docile. I want to see if that theory is true and if it's the same for you. Would you be willing to join us for the experiment this afternoon at the research lab?"

"That does seem like an interesting experiment, and I'd be lying if I were to say I wasn't curious about this creature's behavior to others." Makoto said and paused for a moment, in a thought, before replying with "I'll be there after 12. Would you need any help transporting the merman?"

"I was thinking about sedating him and having the biologists transfer him to the research center. Doctor Takemi will also be there in case he gets too violent with the others."

"Then it's settled. We can't be too distracted writing things down, however, so I'll see if I can bring my sister along to help with the note taking." Makoto then hung up the phone, and with a smile, Goro walked through the doors of the aquarium and passing the lab into the nursery to see the merman, who seemed to be asleep, curled up at the bottom of the little pool. Perfect. This experiment could prove useful.


End file.
